Improvement in harvesters



J. BLUE.

Harvester.

Patented Nov. 24, 1868.

Q i g hi." Iva/anion UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN BLUE, OF TRUMANSBURG, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN HARVESTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 84.340, dated November 24, 1868.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN BLUE, of Trumansburg, in the county of Tompkins and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Harvesters; and that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of my said improvement, and of the manner of making, constructing, and using the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, making a part of this specification.

In cutting grain with a machine the usual practice is to cut around a piece of standing grain. In many cases the grain in some places in the piece is tall, which requires a high reel, and in other places it is short, which requires a low reel; and, again, in some places it may belodged in the direction in which the machine is cutting, which requires a very low reel to pick it up and press it against the sickle; and

in other places it may be lodged in the reverse direction, which again requires the reel to be raised.

The machines mostly in use being incapable of having the position of their reels altered without stopping them, requiring more time than those using them were willing to spend, their practice has been either to place the reel so low as to reach the lodged and short grain, which makes them run much harder in tall and standing grain than when they are high, as well as tangles the grain more or less, or to place thereel so high as not to reach the lodged and short grain, and thus wasting more or less by passing over without cutting it.

The object of my invention is to cure these evils, which it effectually does by enabling the attendant to alter the position of the reel while the machine is cutting, and thus adapt its position to the various requirements of the grain in the different parts of the piece.

It consists, first, in a device which enables the attendant thus to effect a horizontal or for ward-and-backward movement of thereel-viz., in combining a lock consisting of a curved plate, (marked 0 in the drawing,) fastened to the frame A, (see drawing,) and a bolt, 71, and spring (I, fastened to the staff B, the curved plate (3 being provided with several notches in its circle, into which the bolt h may drop by the movement of the staff on its joint 2', and the spin g (I being so arranged as to press the bolt it into either notch into which it may drop, with a reel-staff, B, jointed at the bottom 43 in line with the shaft K, on which is fastened the pulley f, which drives the pulley I on the reelshaft D by aband, L, running over them, thus enabl in g the attendant, by simply bending the spring 61 by the lateral movement of the staff B till the bolt h is detached from the sector 0, to move the staff B, and with it the reel hung thereon, horizontally, or around its joint 2' till the bolt it drops in another notch, without stopping the machine to unscrew a nut, move the reel, and screw up the nut on abolt, which fastens the staff in its position, as is necessary in machines hitherto used; and, second, in a device which enables the attendant thus to effect a vertical movement of the reel viz., in combining a toggle-joint, F, and a lock consisting of a curved plate, H, bolt 7c, and spring 0, the sector H being provided with several notches, into which the bolt 70 may drop by the lateral movement of the handle a on the toggle-joint F, and the spring 6, so constructed as to hold the bolt 70 in either notch into which it drops, and the toggle-joint, having one bar jointed to a slide, E, at 1, one of the bars being extended for a handle, a, to which is fastened the bolt is to fit in the notches, and the spring e to hold the bolt is therein, with the slide E and pulleys f, I, and g, the slide E being movable on the staff B, and the reel hung thereon, the pulley I, fastened to the reel-shaft, vibrating with the movement of the slide E between the pulley f on the shaft K and the pulley g on the opposite side, thus enabling the attendant, by simply bending the spring 6 by the lateral movement of the handle a till the bolt is is detached from the curved plate H, to move the slide E, and with it the reel hung thereon, vertically, or at a right angle to the movement of the staff on its joint, till the bolt it drops, and is locked in another notch, without stopping the machine to loosen, move, and fasten the slide, by clasping or bolt- 'ing the same to the staff, as is necessary in machines hitherto used.

My improvement is used by taking hold of the handle J on the top of the staif and moving it laterally from the sector 0 sufficient to detach the bolt h from the sector 0, thence forward or backward till the bolt it drops in another notch, whenever such positions are required and by taking hold of the handle a and moving it laterally from the curved plate H sufficientto detach the bolt 7c from the curved plate H, thence upward or downward till the bolt drops in another notch, whenever such positions are desired.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of the lock consisting of the curved plate 0, bolt 7:, and spring (I, or their equivalents, with the staffB, joint 2', shaft K, and pulleys f and I, when these several parts are arranged for operation substantially in the manner described, for the purpose specified. 

